Kidlat Tahimik returns medallion over GE overhaul, cites ‘colonial regression’

National Artist of the Philippines for Film Kidlat Tahimik said Thursday that he is waiving his national artist status and returning his medallion in protest of the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) now-shelved Reframed General Education Curriculum (RGEC) proposal. 

Tahimik raised his medallion in front of youth leaders during a forum at Teachers Camp as he announced protest. 

“You are witnesses to my act of protest,” he said. 

The Baguio-based filmmaker, Eric de Guia, denounced the RGEC as it seeks to produce students with “easy-to-quantify skills in job fairs”, while it is actually a “regression backwards to our colonial-imposed education.”

Tahimik argued that the proposal reflects a colonial-era educational model introduced by the Thomasites and prioritizes workforce development over cultural education, referring to the American teachers sent to the Philippines in 1901 on the ship US Army Transport Thomas.

“To me, the total assimilation of Philippine education into this Thomasite philosophy was so successful, it continues today,” he added. “The colonial policy had a less visible aim—by homogenizing the youth for maximizing GDP [gross domestic product], the natives would also be easier to govern. And yes, easier to employ—by calibrating our islander kids’ brains toward ‘competitive competencies.’”

Tahimik told the forum that colleges had been instructed to reduce general units under RGEC from 71 to 36, and further down to 18, weakening lessons on “our history, our heroes, our language and our origins.” 

He also questioned the commission’s motive in reframing the curriculum citing inquiries whether the country should merely follow the educational trends abroad at the expense of cultural education. 

“I am surrendering my prestigious medallion of the Order of National Artists, and I will forgo my national artist’s amenities [monthly stipends, health care, a privilege to be buried in Libingan ng mga Bayani] as a sort of hunger strike,” Tahimik emphasized, already describing himself as “ex-national artist.”

Tahimik said that returning the medallion is his own personal decision to prompt the authorities to re-evaluate the country’s educational direction. 

“My individual act should by no means taint the prestige of my distinguished fellow national artists,” he also said. “This is my personal gesture in good faith to spotlight that somehow our country’s ‘walang-paki’ [we don’t care] DNA might be traceable to the 3-‘R’s-only pedagogy of our colonizers. If this elementary-level menu is today being extended to college levels, quo vadis [where are we going]?”

CHED has previously defended the proposal, saying that the reduction of GE units to as low as 18 units would address curriculum overlap, increase flexibility, and respond to evolving industry needs. 

The proposal’s rollout has been pushed back to 2028 following criticism from various stakeholders and higher education institutions, expressing concerns that the reframing could dilute the teaching of ethics, philosophy, literature, arts, and Philippine history.